The Making of THE UNDERWATER WELDER: Part 1

My newest graphic novel The Underwater Welder was released on Wednesday, but I actually started working on the book over four years ago. It was an incredibly difficult undertaking both creatively and in terms of scheduling. When I started working on the book I wasn't a Dad yet, and I hadn't started working on monthly books for Vertigo or DC Comics yet. In other words I had time on my hands. But over the course of the last four years my life changed dramatically and finding time to work on The Welder became increasingly difficult.

In the first of a series of blog posts I'll try to retrace the creation of the book from my initial notes and sketches to the final product.

Below are the earliest notes, ideas and doodles for the book that I did. Dated 2008, I remember waking up in the middle of the night one night with the initial idea and filling this little notebook with notes and ideas.  As you can see I originally called it  "The Ballad of The Underwater Welder". All I had then was an image of a guy in a diving helmet and the phrase "The deeper I go...the further I get from you." From there I started building a story...